How to watch Election Day coverage with NBC News

The big day is finally here. We’ve made it to Election Day 2012 with President Barack Obama seeking re-election and Republican challenger Mitt Romney hoping to lead the GOP back to the Oval Office. The race is neck-and-neck, with the final NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll (released Sunday) showing Obama getting support from 48 percent of likely voters, and Romney 47 percent. We’ll carry full Election Night coverage from Democracy Plaza and around the country live on NBC News and on your local affiliate, starting at 7 p.m. ET and running until at least 3 a.m. You can also get the full Election Night experience away from the television.

Consider this your guide on how to follow, like, fan and participate in Election Day 2012 from the device or social network of your choice.

NBCNews.com and the NBC Politics App

NBCNews.com and the NBC Politics app (available on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) will carry live streams of NBC News' special coverage beginning at 7 p.m. ET and provide full analysis, video and updates all day long, from when the first polls open until a candidate hits 270 votes from the Electoral College. We’ll also curate the best of our campaign embeds and political reports on Twitter along with voter stories from around the nation.

NBC News will again optimize an experience with new second-screen platform Zeebox. Within the app, users will have a curated view of real-time social media reaction along with the ability to share images, quotes and more behind-the-scenes views. For more information, visit http://nbcnews.com/zeebox.

Additionally, be sure check-in to NBC News Election Night 2012 coverage on GetGlue and continue to be rewarded with another exclusive sticker.

ElectionGrams

A new project, ElectionGrams.com, is a curated collection of political images posted to the popular photo-sharing service Instagram from all 50 states. We are using geotags to display the images on a state-by-state basis, and will post photos uploaded with terms such as #obama2012, #romney or #vote. To participate, tag your voting photos with the #NBCPolitics hashtag and let us know where the photo was taken. Then check in throughout the day to see what you and others are seeing around the nation.

Twitter

Viewers can be a part of the experience on Twitter by following and joining the conversation using the hashtag #NBCPolitics and by following @NBCPolitics and @NBCNews. Want to get a glimpse of the conversation on Democracy Plaza? Follow @DemocracyPlaza and the #DemocracyPlaza hashtag.

Turn to NBC News and NBC Politics on Facebook for a livestream of Election Night 2012 coverage in its entirety. In addition, check back for highlights, polls, analysis and more commentary all day long.

XBox

Election coverage will be streamed in the NBC News app available for free to Xbox Live Gold members. App users can participate by answering election-related questions throughout the evening. Tune in, answer questions and see what others are saying about Election Night 2012.

Crimson Hexagon Social Analysis

We're tracking social media commentary on the presidential candidates using a natural-language tool called ForSight, developed by Crimson-Hexagon Inc. Results are culled from all Twitter messages and a sampling of Facebook posts each day, and reflect not national opinion but a broader look at what's being said by Americans who follow politics and are active on Facebook, Twitter or both, and why they're saying it. Read more about what people said during the final presidential debate and what it all means in analysis by NBC News’ Alex Johnson here, and turn to NBCNews.com in the days following Election Day 2012 for more analysis of social media sentiment.